Kurt Schuschnigg

Kurt Schuschnigg (14 December 1897-18 November 1977) was Chancellor of Austria from 29 July 1934 to 11 March 1938, succeeding Engelbert Dollfuss and preceding Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Schuschnigg's tenure as chancellor saw Nazi Germany annex Austria in the "Anschluss" without any resistance.

Biography
Kurt Scuschnigg was born on 14 December 1897 in Riva del Garda, Austria-Hungary (present-day Trentino, Italy) to a military family of Slovenes (the last name was originally "Susnik"). Schuschnigg served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, and he was taken prisoner on the front against Italy. He joined the Austrian Christian Social Party in 1927 and was elected to the Nationalrat lowre house of Austria at the age of 30, the youngest delegate. Schuschnigg served as Minister of Justice under the fascist dictator Engelbert Dollfuss, and they put down an uprising by socialists in 1934. Following Dollfuss' assassination by the growing Austrian Nazi Party, Schuschnigg became the new Chancellor of Austria. On 12 February 1938 he met Fuhrer Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany to smooth relations with the Germans, as Schuschnigg made Austrian independence his priority. Instead of negotiating, Hitler gave him an ultimatum which threatened invasion unless he overturned the banning of the Nazi Party in Austria. Schuschnigg was forced to do so, and German forces moved into the country, annexing it in the Anschluss. After World War II, Schuschnigg was a professor of political science at St. Louis University in the United States from 1948 to 1967. He died in 1977 in Mutters, Tyrol, Austria at the age of 79.